From having run out of it in the early 1980s, to having more than what the country needs today.
Thus was the trajectory of the Philippines’ dollar reserves, which hit a historic high of $98.95 billion at the end of August—just slightly under the $100-billion threshold, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) believes will be breached before 2020 is over.
In a statement, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the country’s gross international reserves, based on preliminary data, rose by $350 million from the end-July 2020 level of $98.6 billion.
“The month-on-month increase in the [dollar reserves] level reflected inflows mainly from the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad,” he said.
These inflows were partly offset, however, by the foreign currency withdrawals made by the national government to pay its foreign currency debt obligations and revaluation losses from the BSP’s gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market.
The central bank said the end-August 2020 dollar reserves “represent a more than adequate” external liquidity buffer, which could cushion the domestic economy against external shocks.
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